Home Office

Immigrants: Detainees

Paul Blomfield: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of immigration detainees who are (a) foreign national offenders convicted of immigration offences, (b) foreign national offenders convicted of non-immigration offences and (c) other detainees were held in immigration detention for (i) 28 days or fewer, (ii) over 28 days but fewer than four months and (iii) over four months in the last year.

James Brokenshire: Holding answer received on 20 November 2015



The below table provides details of immigration detainees detained at the end of June 2015 and is taken from quarterly published national statistics:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-statistics-april-to-june-2015/detentionHeld 28 Days or FewerOver 28 Days But Fewer Than Four MonthsFour to Six MonthsSix to Twelve MonthsOver Twelve MonthsForeign National Offenders30% (263)41% (365)10% (84)14% (123)5% (49)Other Detainees58% (1502)35% (899)4% (114)2% (62)1% (27)It is not possible to provide a break-down of foreign national offenders convicted of immigration offences and foreign national offenders convicted of non-immigration offences. Such data is not aggregated in national reporting systems, which would mean these questions could only be answered through a disproportionately expensive manual case search to collate the data.

Slavery: Research

Fiona Mactaggart: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for what reasons she selected St Mary's University, Twickenham, to host a specialist international centre for research into modern slavery and human trafficking; and whether any other institution was considered for this role.

Karen Bradley: The Government welcomes research into modern slavery, including the work that St Mary’s University is undertaking on behalf of the Santa Marta Group. The Home Office has no record that either Ministers or its officials played any part in the selection process.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Yemen: Armed Conflict

Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 9 November 2015 to Question 14485, whether he has made an assessment of whether aerial bombing of Hayden Hospital in Yemen could represent a breach in international humanitarian law.

Mr Philip Hammond: Holding answer received on 16 November 2015



We are aware of reports of alleged violations of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) in Yemen by the Saudi Arabia-led Coalition - including in relation to an alleged airstrike against a Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) hospital in Sa’ada, which we take very seriously. I regularly review the situation with my own advisers and have discussed it on numerous occasions with my Saudi counterpart. Our judgement is that there is no evidence that IHL has been breached, but we shall continue to review the situation regularly. We have emphasised the importance of full compliance with IHL to the Saudi Government and other members of the military coalition. They have assured us of their commitment to comply with IHL. We continue to engage with them on those assurances and have offered advice and training to demonstrate best practice and to help ensure continued compliance with IHL. We have also raised our concerns with the Houthis on the importance of compliance with IHL and international human rights law. We continue to urge all sides to the conflict to comply with IHL and to investigate incidents of alleged violations fully.

Attorney General

Attorney General: Public Expenditure

Catherine McKinnell: To ask the Attorney General, pursuant to the Answer of 19 November 2015 to Question 15443, for what reason the (a) Government Legal Department's expenditure on temporary agency staff and (b) Crown Prosecution Service's expenditure on (i) consultants and (ii) non-payroll staff increased between 2010-11 and 2014-15.

Robert Buckland: The Government Legal Department (GLD) provides legal services to government. It engages temporary and contract staff as a way of managing short term variations in demand. Where an increase in demand for legal services is expected to continue for the medium or long term, the department will use temporary staff to resource the work until permanent staff can be recruited. The increase in temporary staff from 2010-11 to 2014-15 reflects increased demand for legal services and the growth of GLD as a result of the Shared Legal Services programme that has brought into one organisation legal teams from across government. As a result overall staff numbers have increased by 69% between 2010-11 and 2014-15.As outlined in the previous answer the actual expenditure incurred by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) on consultants and non-payroll staff between 2010-11 and 2014-15 was as follows.YearConsultantsNon-payroll staff2010/11£684,314£392,9682011/12£13,347£23,3552012/13£9,793£2,8612013/14£960£273,9352014/15£0£1,350,317Between 2010-11 and 2014-15 the CPS has actually reduced its expenditure on consultants by £684,314.In 2014-15 the CPS set up a project to manage the transition from its existing main Information Technology service provider. The Project Manager and remaining team are non-CPS staff, and their costs of £1,350,317 were the only non-payroll staff costs incurred last year.

Cabinet Office

Government Digital Service

Louise Haigh: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the Departmental Settlement within the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015, what proportion of his Department's resource DEL is allocated to the Government Digital Service and related projects in each year to 2019-20.

Matthew Hancock: Holding answer received on 01 December 2015



The Spending Review settlement has shown Government's continued commitment to digital delivery of services to recast the relationship between the citizen and the state. £1.8 billion investment in digital technology was announced by the Government in the Spending Review, plus a £450m allocation for GDS.

Department for Culture, Media and Sport

Internet: Bullying

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what cross-departmental initiatives there are to tackle cyberbullying and protect young people from abuse online.

Mr Edward Vaizey: The UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS) is a multi-stakeholder forum that brings together three government departments, alongside industry, law enforcement, academia, charities and parenting groups to work in partnership to help to keep children and young people safe online. It develops and promotes effective tools and information for children and parents.The board is co-chaired by Ministers from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the Department for Education, and the Home Office. Officials from the Department of Health are also standing observers to Board meetings.The risks UKCCIS is seeking to protect children from are typically understood under four broad categories: content (such as violent or offensive content), contact (such as by online groomers), conduct (such as cyber bullying) and commerce (such as fraud)As part of this work, the UK’s Communications regulator, Ofcom, is leading a working group to develop best practice guidance for emerging social media platforms to encourage responsible practice from industry, and ensure children using their services are able to do so in a safe and protected way. This guidance has just been published. All the key players are round the table in this important collaborative project, including Twitter, Facebook, Google, Ask.FM, MindCandy and Microsoft.The Government Equalities Office has also recently provided £500,000 to the Safer Internet Centre to deliver updated cyberbullying guidance for schools, and a PSHE toolkit to help schools deliver sessions about cyberbullying, peer pressure and sexting; and support to professionals through a hotline and online safety briefings. They have engaged with DCMS and DfE in the development of this guidance.